In ultrasonic diagnosis, ultrasonic waves are transmitted into a diagnosis target, and an echo signal thereof is received, thereby obtaining various kinds of diagnostic pieces of information such as the tomogram of the diagnostic target and the like. Although the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic waves were executed through an ultrasonic probe, the conventional ultrasonic probe was configured to be connected through a cable to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus (in this specification, an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus body is referred to as an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and a system that includes the ultrasonic probe and the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus body is referred to as the ultrasonic diagnostic system).
When the ultrasonic diagnosis is executed, there are the various styles such as a case that a patient lies down on a bed or sits on a chair, and other cases. Among them, even in the case that the patient lies down on the bed, the probe is touched to the patient in the various states depending on the patient's position or diagnostic portion, and the diagnosis is executed. At that time, the number of operators who feel troublesome in setting the cable is not small, and the easiness of setting such as the lightness and softness of the cable is one of the features of the ultrasonic probe.
The following patent document 1 describes an ultrasonic diagnostic system that uses a cordless ultrasonic probe in which an ultrasonic transmitting/receiving unit operated with a secondary battery as an operational power source is built, in order to solve this troublesomeness. According to this ultrasonic diagnostic system, the ultrasonic probe can be operated without any feeling of the troublesomeness when the conventional cable is set around.
Also, the current diagnostic regions based on ultrasonic waves is wide-ranging, and there appears a system in which plural probes are used by switching in accordance with each diagnostic region. In such an ultrasonic diagnostic system, when selecting a probe to be used, there was a necessity that the operator operates a selecting switch mounted on the operational panel of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. Therefore, an operator was required to memorize the relationship between probes to be used and the selecting switch, and in that case, there was also a possibility that an incorrect selecting switch was operated.
The following patent document 2 describes an ultrasonic diagnostic system containing a controller in which among the plurality of probes connected to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, the holding onto a probe holder is identified by a sensor, and the transmission and reception of the ultrasonic waves can be performed on only the probe that is not held. According to this ultrasonic diagnostic system, the probe to be used by the operator is taken out from the probe holder arranged in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. Thus, since the taken-out probe is automatically switched to a usable state, the operability is improved, and the burden on the operator is reduced.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2003-10177 (Abstract)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication 2000-107176 (Abstract)